Facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
-John Adams
Facts and evidence! Those little things that are generally true regardless of your personal beliefs or opinions or as social researches put it: Personal bias.
We all know that facts are facts don’t we? and yet research shows that more often that not we consistently chose to ignore them when making decisions. From what to have for lunch to which car to buy or more importantly how to raise our children and what to believe.
Apparently, voluntarily ignoring facts is what makes us humans. If we were a fact based culture, astrology, religion alongside with myths, legends and politics would not have a place among us and we would cultivate values around science, arts, and evidence based truths.
Moreover, it has been demonstrated that once you have made your mind on any thing, you will selectively choose bits of information that support your view regardless of how true those really are. To make things more interesting the probability of you changing your opinion in the face of new evidence is still very, very low. Funny eh?
If facts and evidence were the ruling element in our behavior maybe this would be a better world. But for sure, many things that create so much grief, suffering and pain like ignorance, religion and superstition would not exist.
I hope that as we evolve to a more connected society, we also learn to develop critical thinking that allows us to seek for evidence based truths that shape how we decide and behave and thus make this world a better place for us and the generations to come.
-Stein
You are assuming we are ruled by scientific logic like Dr Spock.
Natural selection made us to choose the path of survival which often conflicts with logic and morals.
Survival coincides with a comfortable lifestyle in todays world.
So Europe slams its doors on migrants who threaten our way of life. About five hundred million Indians defacate in the open but why should we care we have bathrooms and hot water.
Unfortunately there are other survivors at work who do not care a jot for us. Ebola reared its ugly head and antibiotic resistance is looming.
The present happy few may find they are on a knife edge and then every man for himself will break up the party. Off shore bank accounts may not be so useful as food stashes or stacks of hand weapons.
fascinating post, stein.. I am not sure I would want to live in a world where fantasy and imagination no longer exist though. Still, some facts and science are a good thing too. Cheers!